AT&T “suggests” bloggers/tech community buy into their BS

Not content with paying off government and coating them with lies, it appears AT&T has moved on to us bloggers and the tech community as their next target. Only problem is, we have a brain and are capable of seeing past their PR nonsense. Everyone knows AT&T’s network blows epic amounts of private parts. From the north to the south to the east and to the west, the experience is the same. Their network is riddled with holes, over-taxed towers, and even the possibility of an improperly configured network. Naturally, because of all of the negative criticism, AT&T has been working in overdrive on damage control. After their not uncommon though sleazy attempt at “rallying the troops” to protest any Net Neutrality bills, AT&T is moving to us, the bloggers and individual citizens to spread their PR BS full of lies and false promises. What exactly am I going on about? Continue on. In response to an article IntoMobile’s Stefan’s Constantinescu wrote about AT&T having in improperly configured network, a few feathers were ruffled. The resulting message from AT&T:

Hey Stefan,

Saw your post and wanted to get you a response – we don’t think there’s any merit to the observation you passed along. Would you mind adding this to the post? Feel free to attribute to me or the company …

Also, noted your comment about cell sites – we’ve talked publicly quite a lot about the improvements we’re making to the network (7.2 rollout, increased backhaul to our sites, etc.) – but we also said we plan to add more than 2,000 sites this year.

Thanks,
Seth Bloom
FH for AT&T Corporate Communications

“The AT&T wireless network is designed and engineered to deliver the highest possible levels of capacity and performance. Our standing as the nation’s fastest 3G network is validated by multiple third-party testing organizations on the basis of millions of drive tests annually.”

“We believe that recent online speculation regarding AT&T wireless network configuration settings is without foundation. Allegations in these posts regarding packet loss network settings are incorrect.”

Are AT&T employees, in this case their PR employees that incompetent? All they need to do is spend 10 seconds on Google or any AT&T forum to see people are fed up with their failure of a network. The tech community is a place that they will find very little sympathy if any. Yet they have the nerve to talk up their sub-par network and suggest we bloggers edit our criticisms and talk up their failures? Words escape me. Stephan’s response was classic — putting them right in their place and basically telling them to STFU:

I’m not going to copy and paste your marketing message to my blog post. Good luck getting other blogs to follow your request.

In a way, AT&T sort of succeeded because I reposted their message into my post. But as you can see, it’s far from praising as I’m using it to further degrade their network and credibility. I may be mean. I may be too excited about this. But I’m far from the only person who hates AT&T and their pathetic attempts to hide their shortcomings — of which their are many. Are you just as disgusted or are you becoming desensitized? I keep telling myself that with enough of these little “incidents” becoming widely known, maybe AT&T will wise up and learn when it is and isn’t ok to blindly defend yourself.

AT&T take note: Your network sucks. Your policies suck. Your PR’s cookie cutter comments and attempts to get intelligent people buy in to your propaganda suck.

IntoMobile

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AT&T just doesn’t get it: Double/Triple charging you for their problems.

After seeing countless posts today about AT&T’s new MicroCells, I can’t help but reply to everyone who thinks these are God’s gift from Big Blue. THEY’RE NOT! To many, AT&T’s announcement and release of MicroCells, or little router like contraptions that increase cellular reception (it’s AT&T…stop kidding yourself…they give you reception) inside your humble abode are a blessing bringing a much needed improvement in reception, or reception to a location that before hand didn’t have any signal. In reality, these are nothing but a shotgun blast to the back of every AT&T subscriber’s back. Here’s why — they’re charging your twice for the same service. How this isn’t illegal I don’t know. It surely isn’t consumer friendly.

First, you pay right around $100/month for an iPhone plan with shoddy service as an added “free” bonus. Next, to make up for the god awful performance and coverage, AT&T trots in on their white horse offering a “solution”. The solution is anything but. Instead it is a wallet raping to the tune of $20 extra per month to take the same network your already pay for and instead offload it on to your ISP thereby taking the load off of AT&T. In actuality, if you use AT&T for home internet service as well, you’re pretty much paying for the same thing 3x over:

1. first you pay for the wireless data plan
2. next you pay for the $20/month micro cell
3. (if you use AT&T for home internet) finally you pay for home internet, which will end up carrying already paid items 1 & 2.

Someone please explain to me how AT&T can get away with this? Their network sucks beyond belief and they are constantly spewing out empty promises of “network upgrades” and expanded coverage yet nothing ever comes about. I’ve said it multiple times before, and I’ll say it again: I can’t wait to drop this POS excuse for a carrier.

What’s worse is that AT&T actually believes they’re doing their customers a favor with their new MicroCells. If they really wanted to impress disgruntled customers they’d start slinging these MicroCells out for free in efforts to salvage the shitty image they already have and prevent it from going even further south. Do yourself a favor and pass these gimmicks. Better yet, take your hard earned dollars elsewhere. There are at least three other carriers with networks much more reliable than AT&T.

Am I the only one that can see the injustice here?

**Update: Engadget and MacRumors are reporting various tidbits about AT&T’s MicroCell offerings. The device itself will apparently cost $150 with a $100 rebate and service if you choose to use your own wireless minutes will be free. If you want to add unlimited calling via MicroCell, the pricing scheme is as follows:

• MicroCell w/o any other AT&T services: $19.99

• MicroCell w/ either AT&T home phone or internet: $9.99

• MicroCell w/ both AT&T home phone and internet: FREE

While it still isn’t ideal, it’s a start and is more in line with Verizon and Sprint’s offerings. Though their units cost a tad cheaper up front.

Also worth noting, the service is currently labeled as a “public trial” in Charlotte, North Carolina.

After reviewing the new info, anything over free for this service when AT&T in essence isn’t doing anything except rerouting traffic still makes this a boon no?